She was born 22 April 1959 to N. T. Rama Rao and Basavatarakam. She did her schooling from Sacred Heart Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Church Park, Chennai.[3] She is their second daughter and has 7 brothers and 3 sisters. She has a Bachelor of Arts from the South Indian Educational Trust and Women College (Chennai) (renamed as the Bashir Ahmed Sayeed College for Women) in literature in 1979, followed by a Diploma in gemmology at the Gemmological Institute of India in 1996.[4][3] Later she established Hyderabad Institute of Gem and Jewellery in 1997. She can read, write and speak five languages, English, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and French. She is versatile in the Indian dance form Kuchipudi.[5] She married Daggubati Venkateswara Rao on 9 May 1979 and they have a daughter, Nivedita and son, Hitesh Chenchuram.[6]
In 2014, Purandareswari fought the Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket from Rajampet and lost.[12] She was appointed the BJP Mahila Morcha Prabhari.[13][14] On July 4, 2023, she was appointed as the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Andhra Pradesh.[15]